[297] An Answer to Alexander Hamilton’s Letter, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq., President of the United States, New York, 1800, p. 3. In this connection it may be noted that as ardent and hopeful a Democrat as Nathaniel Ames seriously contemplated the outbreak of civil war in the United States as the result of the tense party situation near the end of 1798. Cf. Dedham Historical Register, Diary of Ames, vol. ix, p. 63.
[298] The Works of Alexander Hamilton, vol. vii, pp. 374–377: Fragment on the French Revolution. The Fragment is undated. It could not have been written later than 1804, of course. There are some slight traces that it was compiled at the time the excitement over the Illuminati was prevalent in America.
[299] Forestier, Les Illuminés de Bavière et la Franc-Maçonnerie allemande, p. 103. This author, upon whose recent painstaking researches much reliance is placed in this chapter, relates that one traveler who was in Bavaria at this time, found 28,000 churches and chapels, with pious foundations representing a total value of 60,000,000 florins. Munich, a city of 40,000 inhabitants, had no less than 17 convents. When a papal bull, issued in 1798, authorized the elector to dispose of the seventh part of the goods of the clergy, the Bavarian government, in executing the pope’s directions, deducted 25,000,000 florins, and it was remarked that this amount did not equal the sum which had been agreed upon. Cf. ibid., pp. 103 et seq.
[300] Forestier, op. cit., p. 108: “Dans aucun pays du monde, si l’on excepte le Paraguay, les fils de Loyola n’avaient obtenu une victoire plus complète, ni conquis une autorité plus grande.” Cf. Mounier, De l’influence attribuée aux Philosophes aux franc-maçons et aux illuminés sur la révolution de France, p. 189.
[301] Ibid., pp. 109, 100. Duhr, B., Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge im 16. Jahrhundert, Freiburg, 1907, discusses the earlier development. The work of F. J. Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern, München, 1816, 2 vols., is antiquated and is little more than a chronicle.
[302] Engel, Geschichte des Illuminaten-Ordens, p. 29.
[303] The suppression of the Jesuits by Pope Clement XIV, in 1773, did not greatly diminish the influence and power of the order in Bavaria. Refusing to accept defeat, the new intrigues to which they gave themselves inspired in their enemies a new sense of their cohesion, with the result that they appeared even more formidable than before their suppression.
[304] Forestier, op. cit., pp. 105 et seq.
[305] Forestier, op. cit., p. 19.
[306] Ibid., p. 18. Cf. Engel, op. cit., pp. 19, 28, 29.